579 results for "Historical Fiction"

The Night of the Ripper

Robert Bloch
The author of Psycho takes on the famous unsolved slayings of Jack the Ripper! Robert Bloch gave us fiction's most famous knife-wielding maniac in Psycho's Norman Bates, and in The Night of the Ripper (1984), this master of horror fiction offers his own unique take on history's most infamous unsolved murder case. Whitechapel, 1888. A madman stalks the foggy streets, murdering prostitutes in acts of unimaginable horror and brutality. Two men - Frederick Abberline of the Metropolitan Police and Mark Robinson, a young American doctor - are determined to find the killer, but the list of suspects is a long one. With the help of a supporting cast of characters that includes Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Elephant Man, the two sleuths must solve the puzzle before it's too late and the Ripper strikes again! "Might be Bloch's best book yet . . . the sort of book that just grabs you and makes you read it." - Peter Straub "May well nudge out Psycho as Bloch's most popular novel." - Washington Post "A must for mystery and horror fans." - Fantasy Review
Valancourt Books 2024-12-03 208 pages

Swann's War

Michael Oren
A thrilling literary fiction whodunit for fans of Delia Owens and Jacqueline Winspear World War II is raging overseas, but life remains painfully quiet on the rugged New England fishing island of Fourth Cliff. With most of its able-bodied male inhabitants away in the service, the island is now home only to aged fishermen, concerned women and children, and second-rate soldiers guarding a low-priority military emplacement and camp for Italian POWs. With her husband Archie, Fourth Cliff's beloved police captain, off fighting in the Marines, Mary Beth Swann steps into his role. Though a cop herself, she has to fight for the respect of Fourth Cliff's hardscrabble residents. And that's before a murdered POW surfaces in a fisherman's net, followed by more bodies. Determined to find the killer, Swann must rely only on the help of a simple-minded deputy, a disgraced doctor, and a mob-connected mainlander to prove her worth to Fourth Cliff--and to herself. In the tradition of Where the Crawdads Sing and the BBC's Foyle's War, Michael Oren's novel seizes the reader and doesn't let go until the very last page.
Dzanc Books 2022-10-25 256 pages

Queen's Own Fool

Jane Yolen,Robert Harris
Fans of historical sagas and the CW show Reign will be swept up by this clever tale by Jane Yolen and Robert Harris Once she was a traveling player . . . Now called La Jardinière, a resourceful and clever jester to the queen’s court, Nicola was a most unlikely person to end up “fool” and friend to Mary, Queen of Scots. But Nicola isn’t an ordinary comedian tumbling and clowning before the court; her quick wit and sharp tongue are rare amongst the fawning nobles. As fate takes Mary from France to Scotland, and into confrontations with rebellious lords and devious advisors, Nicola remains deep in the queen’s inner circle. But when the Scots start to turn on Queen Mary, Nicola struggles to find something—anything—that she, just a fool, can do to save her friend. “Based deeply in fact and full of detail both luscious and sordid. . . . [Yolen and Harris] spin a historical tale of great immediacy and impact.”— Kirkus Reviews "This rich and involving novel of Mary Queen of Scots and her court will have readers clamoring to know more about this dramatic period in French and Scottish history. Readers are treated to a fascinating look at royal politics."— School Library Journal
Penguin Young Readers Group 2001-11-12 400 pages

The Cape Doctor A Novel

E. J. Levy
A "gorgeous, thoughtful, heartbreaking" historical novel, The Cape Doctor is the story of one man's journey from penniless Irish girl to one of most celebrated and accomplished figures of his time (Lauren Fox, New York Times bestselling author of Send for Me ). Beginning in Cork, Ireland, the novel recounts Jonathan Mirandus Perry's journey from daughter to son in order to enter medical school and provide for family, but Perry soon embraced the new-found freedom of living life as a man. From brilliant medical student in Edinburgh and London to eligible bachelor and quick-tempered physician in Cape Town, Dr. Perry thrived. When he befriended the aristocratic Cape Governor, the doctor rose to the pinnacle of society, before the two were publicly accused of a homosexual affair that scandalized the colonies and nearly cost them their lives. E. J. Levy's enthralling novel, inspired by the life of Dr. James Miranda Barry, brings this captivating character vividly alive.
Little Brown 2022-08-02 352 pages

The Boston Girl

Anita Diamant
"New York Times" bestseller An unforgettable novel about a young Jewish woman growing up in Boston in the early twentieth century, told "with humor and optimism...through the eyes of an irresistible heroine" ("People")--from the acclaimed author of "The Red Tent." Anita Diamant's "vivid, affectionate portrait of American womanhood" ("Los Angeles Times"), follows the life of one woman, Addie Baum, through a period of dramatic change. Addie is The Boston Girl, the spirited daughter of an immigrant Jewish family, born in 1900 to parents who were unprepared for America and its effect on their three daughters. Growing up in the North End of Boston, then a teeming multicultural neighborhood, Addie's intelligence and curiosity take her to a world her parents can't imagine--a world of short skirts, movies, celebrity culture, and new opportunities for women. Addie wants to finish high school and dreams of going to college. She wants a career and to find true love. From the one-room tenement apartment she shared with her parents and two sisters, to the library group for girls she joins at a neighborhood settlement house, to her first, disastrous love affair, to finding the love of her life, eighty-five-year-old Addie recounts her adventures with humor and compassion for the naive girl she once was. Written with the same attention to historical detail and emotional resonance that made Diamant's previous novels bestsellers, "The" "Boston Girl" is a moving portrait of one woman's complicated life in twentieth century America, and a fascinating look at a generation of women finding their places in a changing world. "Diamant brings to life a piece of feminism's forgotten history" ("Good Housekeeping") in this "inspirational...page-turning portrait of immigrant life in the early twentieth century" ("Booklist").
Thorndike Press 2015-08-20 410 pages

The Forty Days of Musa Dagh

Franz Werfel
"In every sense a true and thrilling novel."-- New York Times Book Review The heroic story of resistance during the Armenian genocide. When the Turkish government ordered the deportation of Armenians, several villages in the mountains chose not to obey. Instead, they fortified a plateau on the slopes of Musa Dagh and repelled Turkish soldiers and military police during the summer of 1915 while holding out hope that the warships of the Allies would save them. An international bestseller when first published in 1933, and the first novel in modern times to capture genocide by a state, Franz Werfel's masterpiece brought the world's attention to this devastating crime against humanity and the Armenian people.
David R. Godine Publisher 2025-11-18 936 pages

The Pacific and Other Stories

Mark Helprin
A dazzling collection of short stories by Mark Helprin, bestselling author of Winter's Tale , which is now a major motion picture starring Colin Farrell, Jessica Brown Findlay, Russell Crowe, William Hurt, and Jennifer Connelly The Pacific and Other Stories is a collection of sixteen stories that display the remarkable scope, incomparable wit, and deft prose that have come to be Mark Helprin's signature. A British paratrooper jumps into occupied territory; the 1958 New York Yankees gain an unexpected teammate in a puny, teenaged Hasidic Jew; a September 11th widow receives an astonishing gift from the contractor working on her new apartment—these and other stories exhibit the constantly changing variety of the ocean itself, the peaks and troughs of life. Lighthearted, glittering fables are met with starker tales that sound the depths of sacrifice and duty. The Pacific and Other Stories is a resplendent, powerful collection of lasting substance and emotional import.
Penguin 2005-06-28 384 pages

John Henry

Julius Lester
Julius Lester and Jerry Pinkney's warm, humorous retelling of a popular African-American folk ballad. When John Henry was born the birds, bears, rabbits, and even a unicorn came to see him. He grew so fast, he burst right through the porch roof, and laughed so loud, he scared the sun! Soon John Henry is swinging two huge sledgehammers to build roads, pulverizing boulders, and smashing rocks to smithereens. He's stronger than ten men and can dig through a mountain faster than a steam drill. Nothing can stop John Henry, and his courage stays with us forever. A Caldecott Honor Book * "This is a tall tale and heroic myth, a celebration of the human spirit . . . The story is told with rhythm and wit, humor and exageration, and with a heart-catching immediacy that connects the human and the natural world. " -- Booklist , starred review "Another winning collaboration from the master storyteller and gifted artist of Tales of Uncle Remus fame." -- School Library Journal "A great American hero comes fully to life in this epic retelling filled with glorious, detailed watercolors . . . This carefully crafted updating begs to be read aloud for its rich, rhythmic storytelling flow, and the suitably oversize illustrations amplify the text." -- Publishers Weekly
Penguin 1999-12-01 40 pages

Kissinger on Kissinger Reflections on Diplomacy, Grand Strategy, and Leadership

Winston Lord,Henry Kissinger
In a series of riveting interviews, America's senior statesman discusses the challenges of directing foreign policy during times of great global tension. As National Security Advisor to Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger transformed America's approach to diplomacy with China, the USSR, Vietnam, and the Middle East, laying the foundations for geopolitics as we know them today. Nearly fifty years later, escalating tensions between the US, China, and Russia are threatening a swift return to the same diplomatic game of tug-of-war that Kissinger played so masterfully. Kissinger on Kissinger is a series of faithfully transcribed interviews conducted by the elder statesman's longtime associate, Winston Lord, which captures Kissinger's thoughts on the specific challenges that he faced during his tenure as NSA, his general advice on leadership and international relations, and stunning portraits of the larger-than-life world leaders of the era. The result is a frank and well-informed overview of US foreign policy in the first half of the 70s—essential reading for anyone hoping to understand tomorrow's global challenges.
St. Martin's Publishing Group 2019-05-14 176 pages

River of Stars

Guy Gavriel Kay
"Ren Daiyan was still just a boy when he took the lives of seven men while guarding an imperial magistrate of Kitai. That moment on a lonely road changed his life-- in entirely unexpected ways, sending him into the forests of Kitai among the outlaws. From there he emerges years later-- and his life changes again, dramatically, as he circles towards the court and emperor, while war approaches Kitai from the north. Lin Shan is the daughter of a scholar, his beloved only child. Educated by him in ways young women never are, gifted as a songwriter and calligrapher, she finds herself living a life suspended between two worlds. Her intelligence captivates an emperor-- and alienates women at the court. But when her father's life is endangered by the savage politics of the day, Shan must act in ways no woman ever has. In an empire divided by bitter factions circling an exquisitely cultured emperor who loves his gardens and his art far more than the burdens of governing, dramatic events on the northern steppe alter the balance of power in the world, leading to events no one could have foretold, under the river of stars" -- from publisher's web site.
HarperCollins 2013 639 pages

A Conspiracy of Paper

David Liss
Benjamin Weaver is an outsider in eighteenth-century London: a Jew among Christians; a ruffian among aristocrats; a retired pugilist who, hired by London's gentry, travels through the criminal underworld in pursuit of debtors and thieves. Now he is investigating a crime of the most personal sort: the mysterious death of his estranged father, a notorious stockjobber. Between him the answers is a network of secrecy, deception and violence. Relying on brains and brawn, Weaver uncovers the beginnings of a strange new economic order based on stock speculation ...
Thorndike Press 2000 781 pages

The War Within A Novel of the Civil War

Carol Matas
Holly Springs, Mississippi, 1862 Hannah Green can't believe what happens to her family after the war breaks out. First, her sister Joanna falls in love with a Union soldier -- an enemy. Next, the same soldier tells Hannah and her family about General Grant's General Order #11, which commands all Jews to evacuate the territory for violating trade regulations. The Greens escape from Holly Springs just before their home is destroyed. They lose everything -- even their slaves, when Lincoln declares them free. Now, because she is Jewish, Hannah cannot go home to Mississippi -- a Confederate state that's dear to her heart. Confusion sets in. Who is on her side, and whose side does she want to be on?
Aladdin 2002-09-01 160 pages

Nemesis

Philip Roth
In 'the stifling heat of equatorial Newark', a terrifying epidemic is raging, threatening the children of the New Jersey city with maiming, paralysis, life-long disability, even death. This is the startling and surprising theme of Roth's wrenching new book: a wartime polio epidemic in the summer of 1944 and the effect it has on a closely-knit, family-oriented Newark community and its children. At the centre of Nemesis is a vigorous, dutiful, twenty-three-year old playground director, Bucky Cantor, a javelin thrower and a weightlifter, who is devoted to his charges and disappointed with himself because his weak eyes have excluded him from serving in the war alongside his contemporaries. Focusing on Cantor's dilemmas as polio begins to ravage his playground - and on the everyday realities he faces - Roth leads us through every inch of emotion such a pestilence can breed: the fear, the panic, the anger, the bewilderment, the suffering, and the pain. Moving between the smouldering, malodorous streets of besieged Newark and Indian Hill, a pristine children's summer camp high in the Poconos - whose 'mountain air was purified of all contaminants' - Roth depicts a decent, energetic man with the best intentions struggling in his own private war against the epidemic. Roth is tenderly exact at every point about Cantor's passage into personal disaster and no less exact about the condition of childhood. Through this story runs the dark question that haunts all four of Roth's late short novels, Everyman , Indignation , The Humbling , and now, Nemesis : what choices fatally shape a life? How powerless is each of us up against the force of circumstances?
Vintage books 2011 304 pages

Atalanta and the Arcadian Beast

Jane Yolen,Robert J. Harris
A wild girl with a mysterious past When her adopted father is slain by a strange beast, Atalanta is determined to take care of herself. She is happy in the forest with only her friend Urso -- a giant bear -- for company. She wants nothing to do with the world of men. But the ferocious creature that killed her father is still out there, and Atalanta can't resist the opportunity to hunt it down, even if that means she has to join forces with a group of hunters to do so. Atalanta must prove that she is as strong and brave as any of the others, as they search together for the deadly Arcadian Beast.
Harper Collins 2004-02-17 256 pages

I am Abraham: a novel of Lincoln and the Civil War

Charyn, Jerome
Narrated in Lincoln’s own voice, the tragicomic I Am Abraham promises to be the masterwork of Jerome Charyn’s remarkable career. Since publishing his first novel in 1964, Jerome Charyn has established himself as one of the most inventive and prolific literary chroniclers of the American landscape. Here in I Am Abraham , Charyn returns with an unforgettable portrait of Lincoln and the Civil War. Narrated boldly in the first person, I Am Abraham effortlessly mixes humor with Shakespearean-like tragedy, in the process creating an achingly human portrait of our sixteenth President. Tracing the historic arc of Lincoln's life from his picaresque days as a gangly young lawyer in Sangamon County, Illinois, through his improbable marriage to Kentucky belle Mary Todd, to his 1865 visit to war-shattered Richmond only days before his assassination, I Am Abraham hews closely to the familiar Lincoln saga. Charyn seamlessly braids historical figures such as Mrs. Keckley—the former slave, who became the First Lady's dressmaker and confidante—and the swaggering and almost treasonous General McClellan with a parade of fictional extras: wise-cracking knaves, conniving hangers-on, speculators, scheming Senators, and even patriotic whores. We encounter the renegade Rebel soldiers who flanked the District in tattered uniforms and cardboard shoes, living in a no-man's-land between North and South; as well as the Northern deserters, young men all, with sunken, hollowed faces, sitting in the punishing sun, waiting for their rendezvous with the firing squad; and the black recruits, whom Lincoln’s own generals wanted to discard, but who play a pivotal role in winning the Civil War. At the center of this grand pageant is always Lincoln himself, clad in a green shawl, pacing the White House halls in the darkest hours of America’s bloodiest war. Using biblically cadenced prose, cornpone nineteenth-century humor, and Lincoln’s own letters and speeches, Charyn concocts a profoundly moral but troubled commander in chief, whose relationship with his Ophelia-like wife and sons—Robert, Willie, and Tad—is explored with penetrating psychological insight and the utmost compassion. Seized by melancholy and imbued with an unfaltering sense of human worth, Charyn’s President Lincoln comes to vibrant, three-dimensional life in a haunting portrait we have rarely seen in historical fiction.
Liveright Publishing Corporation, A Division of W.W. Norton & Company 2014-02-03 456 pages

Far Horizons All New Tales From The Greatest Worlds Of Science Fiction

Robert Silverberg
The universe of the mind is a limitless expanse of wonders, filled with worlds and secrets that cannot be fully explored within the pages of a single novel. Avid readers of science fiction have long appreciated the myriad joys of returning to fictional galaxies already experienced. In Far Horizons, a variable "Who's Who" of science fiction's most beloved and highly honored writers once again revisit the remariable worlds they created and made famous. Perhaps the greatest concentration of science fiction talent ever in one volume, this unprecedented masterpiece reopens vast empires of imagination and adventure to new explorations and appreciations. It is a major SF event, sure to bring unparalleled joy to the hearts of serious fans everywhere.
Harper Collins 2000-05-02 608 pages